This invention relates to an oil burner that affords adjustment of the shape of the flame produced thereby in an asymmetric pattern.
In many burner applications, for example, in firing a rotary kiln, it is desirable to vary the flame pattern from time to time and to bias the shape of the flame in an asymmetric pattern. In the environment of a rotary kiln, variations in the constitution and feed rate of the raw materials fed into the kiln require variations in flame shape in order to achieve optimal operation.
Oil fired burners designed to produce variable flame shapes which are symmetrical in longitudinal cross section are known. An exemplary burner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,752,405 to Vosper et al. Therein, an oil burner is described having two separate, individually fed oil injection systems, one of which injects one or more narrow, axially directed oil streams, and the other of which injects one or more short, wide angle oil streams. The apparatus described in that patent is so arranged that the streams injected by the two systems intercept one another to form a symmetric composite stream which combusts in the form of a composite flame of variable "bushiness."